{"id":446416,"date":"2026-11-03T20:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T20:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/446416\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T20:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T20:16:09","slug":"inside-david-jollys-election-night-watch-party-as-florida-chooses-its-next-governor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/446416\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside David Jolly’s election night watch party as Florida chooses its next governor"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. (WPEC) \u2014 Florida hasn’t elected a Democratic governor since 1994. Tuesday night, David Jolly<\/a> is hoping to change that.<\/p>\n

The former Republican congressman turned Democrat is holding his election night watch party at the Tampa Convention Center, where he and his supporters will watch the results of his race against Republican Congressman Byron Donalds.<\/a><\/p>\n

The winner will replace term-limited Gov. Ron DeSantis.<\/a><\/p>\n

Jolly represented the Tampa Bay area in Congress as a Republican before leaving the party, becoming an independent and eventually joining the Democrats.<\/p>\n

Now, he’s trying to win statewide in a Florida electorate with roughly 1.5 million more registered Republicans than Democrats.<\/p>\n

\"During<\/p>\n

During a one-on-one interview with CBS12 News reporter Katie Bente at the station’s West Palm Beach studios in October, Jolly was asked whether his Republican background could help him win over voters from his former party. (WPEC)<\/p>\n

During a one-on-one interview with CBS12 News reporter Katie Bente at the station’s West Palm Beach studios in October, Jolly was asked whether his Republican background could help him win over voters from his former party.<\/p>\n

“I do think it’s part of the strength of our campaign,” Jolly said. “I spent six or seven years as an independent, probably the most informative part of my career. It allowed me to think about kind of big solutions to big problems.”<\/p>\n

Jolly said his political values have largely remained the same despite changing parties.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes there’s language I think that Republicans understand. I talk about local control, government closest to the people knows best, staying out of your doctor’s office in your bedroom because I believe in truly less government,” he said.<\/p>\n

Donalds, a congressman from Southwest Florida, has President Donald Trump’s endorsement and has campaigned on economic growth, affordability and public safety.<\/p>\n

\"{p}The<\/p>\n

The race to become Florida\u2019s next governor is now in the hands of voters across the state. Democrat David Jolly and Republican Byron Donalds are fighting to become Florida\u2019s next governor and the race is neck and neck. (WPEC) <\/p>\n

Both candidates have made the cost of living a central issue in their campaigns, although they have proposed different approaches to addressing housing, insurance and other expenses.<\/p>\n

During his CBS12 News interview, Jolly proposed creating a state catastrophic insurance fund that he claimed could reduce homeowners insurance costs by 60% to 70%.<\/p>\n

He also discussed expanding affordable housing and access to primary health care.<\/p>\n

“We have big problems that need big solutions,” Jolly said.<\/p>\n

The two candidates have also differed on abortion policy.<\/p>\n

Florida currently bans most abortions after six weeks, with limited exceptions. Jolly, who previously supported abortion restrictions as a Republican, now says he supports restoring the protections established under Roe v. Wade.<\/p>\n

“I supported Amendment Four as a voter,” Jolly told CBS12 News, referring to the 2024 proposal that received nearly 57% support but failed to reach the 60% threshold required for passage.<\/p>\n

Donalds has supported Florida’s current six-week abortion ban.<\/p>\n

See also:The race to become Florida’s next Governor now in the hands of voters<\/a><\/p>\n

The candidates spent the final days of the campaign traveling across Florida, making their closing pitches to voters on issues including affordability and the state’s economy.<\/p>\n

Jolly and running mate Gwen Graham are spending election night in Tampa. Donalds is holding his watch party at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood.<\/p>\n

Polling places close at 7 p.m. Eastern. Florida’s statewide election results will begin being released after 8 p.m. Eastern.<\/p>\n

CBS12 News has reporters at both Jolly’s and Donalds’ election night watch parties and will continue updating this story as results come in and the candidates respond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. (WPEC) \u2014 Florida hasn’t elected a Democratic governor since 1994. Tuesday night, David Jolly is hoping…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-446416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=446416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}